White House: It's time to speak up

Good afternoon --

For many of us, buying a home is about more than a roof over our heads. It's the place where we'll watch our kids grow up and an investment that will guarantee our long term financial security. There's a reason that a home is an essential part of the American dream.

But right now, owning a home is a source of anxiety for millions of Americans. Last week, we heard from thousands of homeowners who are paying their bills on time but struggling and could benefit from being able to refinance their homes at historically low rates. Unfortunately, too many families who work hard and play by the rules just can't seem to catch a break. Here's what one homeowner in Mission Viejo, California told us:

Listen, people like me aren't looking for a handout. I've got decent credit and if weren't for the value of my home being significantly less than I owe, I would refinance now. If I could refinance at the historically low rates, I could do two things 1) pay off some other debt and 2) buy things I and my family need.

President Obama has proposed a plan that will cut through the red tape keeping millions of responsible homeowners from mortgage relief. It will save these folks hundreds of dollars a month -- and it's starting to get some momentum in Congress.

The President has been traveling all over the country to build support for his plan, and it's time for you to speak out with him. Add your voice to his.

If we make this happen, it's the kind of change that can have an outsized impact on the entire country. With a little extra money each month, our friends and our neighbors will be able to do more for their families. That means stronger communities and a stronger national economy.

Here's what another homeowner in Virginia told us about how this would impact not just their homes, but the entire country:

Any way that you can help the middle income people will go a long way with helping the economy. Home ownership is one of the biggest expenses people have and anything to help them reduce their payments would help immensely. The only thing is cut the red tape ...

So even if you don't own a mortgage or don't need to refinance, it's important to add your voice.

We need to show that this is the kind big, national priority that transcends petty partisanship. Republicans and Democrats alike own houses, and they call each other neighbors. It will mean good things for all of us if every responsible homeowner can get some relief.

So speak out beside President Obama. Tell us why you support refinancing, and we'll make sure your story resonates here in Washington and around the country.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/why-refi

We have an opportunity here, and with your help, we can make it a reality.

Thank you,

David Plouffe

Senior Advisor to the President

ICYMI: Santorum Aided Junk Lending and Bailouts—Hurting Minority Families, Launching Recession

Helped lead effort of promoting no-money-down home ownership as the bubble kept inflating

 

LAKE JACKSON, Texas – Here’s one for the history books, and you don’t need to speak as a historian to appreciate it.

 

On the campaign trail, Republican Presidential candidate Rick Santorum often touts a rigid disdain for government interference in the economy and federal bailouts for the wealthy few at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens.  But as U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania Santorum actively supported the junk lending that put minority families underwater and the subsequent bailouts that shielded unscrupulous non- and for-profit lenders, while leaving middle class minorities and the nation’s entire middle class holding the bag.

 

It remains to be seen whether the nation will have Santorum to thank for the coming inflation tax that erodes purchasing power for low- and fixed-income Americans, since taxpayers have yet to see the full bill for these bailouts.

 

In Bid to Boost Black Homeownership, Rick Santorum Fueled Housing Bubble That Led to Financial Crisis

By Charles C. Johnson

 

One of the consistent refrains from the Rick Santorum campaign is that he opposes government bailouts, but as a senator, he supported the something-for-nothing policy most responsible for the housing bubble. Like George W. Bush and other “compassionate conservatives,” he was naively obsessed with affordable housing for low-income potential home buyers, a mismanaged cause that led to billions in loan defaults and which the IRS called a “scam.”

 

In his book It Takes A Family (2005), Santorum wrote at length and approvingly of the Nehemiah Project, a Sacramento faith-based nonprofit that helped mostly black low-income buyers get access to home ownership through its down-payment assistance program. (The name Nehemiah, who rebuilt Jerusalem, comes from the Bible.)

 

But as Jeff Horwitz and Dave Jamieson report from the Huffington Post’s Investigative Fund, down-payment aid programs like Nehemiah effectively “pav[ed] the way for even riskier subprime loans by private lenders.” How did this happen? Horwitz and Jamieson explained in 2009.

 

A home builder would agree to make a “gift” to the nonprofit in an amount equal to the down payment. The nonprofit would give the cash to the buyer, often earning a generous fee for its role as middleman. In less than a decade, nonprofits had arranged more than a million no-money-down house sales around the country. By 2008, they represented more than a third of all loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration (FHA).

 

The Santorum-endorsed Nehemiah Project and its nearest competitor, AmeriDream, according to Horwitz and Jamieson, helped set up 392,000 mortgages worth $54 billion, earning tens of millions in fees for itself—and nearly a billion dollars each for Centex, D.R. Horton, and Dominion Homes, the builders who made the donations that made the shaky mortgages possible. The loans to the buyers, which ended up with triple the default rate of other FHA loans, often required no down payment at all from them, something of which Rick Santorum specifically approved. Indeed, Santorum proudly worked with Senator Dianne Feinstein (recipient of $1000 from Nehemiah’s CEO in 2006) and other Democrats to protect the Nehemiah Project from oversight from the IRS and HUD…

 

To read the full article online, please click here.